Blarney Castle

6 years ago we visited Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone.  I was going through some boxes and I found the photos from the day.  Looking back at the photos I remembered how great Blarney was and what a wonderful weekend we had!

Legend has it that by kissing the Blarney Stone you get the gift of the gab - the gift of eloquence.  Somehow I think this a gift that I don't need!!

www.blarneycastle.ie

Dinner disaster

Yesterday's dinner was a disaster after a disaster.  At lunchtime, I went to marks & spencers and bought food for dinner.  I got chicken kievs, some vegetables and cos lettuce for a salad.  When I returned to work I put them in the fridge to keep them chilled.  As I drove home that evening I rembered that I had left the food in the fridge.  :-(

So just as I neared home I stopped in Superquinn in Ranelagh and bought a stuffed chicken with prepared vegetables.  All was good, I had rectified the forgotten food situation.

I switched on the oven set the timer for 70 mins and popped the chicken in.  With 20 mins left of cooking time I went and checked the chicken. This was when I discovered that I had put the chicken in the other oven.  There was a lovely warm oven that was empty and above it was a stone cold chicken sitting in a cold oven.

At this point when I moved the chicken in to the warm oven it would be 10pm before we would be eating.

A decision was made, we rang Siam Thai, drove around and collected food and were sitting down eating noodles by 9.20pm.

Any dinner disasters on this scale (all down to my stupidity) ever happen to you?

Lidl - 4th of July

Obviously we don't mark American Independence Day in Ireland, however over the years lots of shop have started selling speciality items and 4th of July parties are becoming somewhat popular - particularly if it falls on the weekend.  Bars promote the event in order to bring in more patrons.

The German supermarket Lidl is selling some special products for 4th of July celebrations.  Most of them I would think are vaguely American.......except for fajitas.  Are fajitas not Mexican??

Fast day

It's a fast day of 500 cals today. 

Breakfast:

Lunch: Hummus

Dinner: Small bowl of All Bran & rocket leaves salad

After work we got in to the hot tub for the first tine since we refilled.  The water was sparkling and perfectly warm.  It was divine.  After our soak we went straight to bed - surprisingly unhungry.  However, Ciaran did say he felt like making cheese and crackers even though he wasn't hungry but that it was just habit.  

It was Ciaran's first day fasting - men can eat 600 cals on the 5:2 diet. For breakfast he had muesli sprinkled with seeds.  Lunch was 2 poached eggs, half a tomato & a slice of multigrain toast. Dinner was a banana and an apple.  He then went for a physio session followed by a boxing class.  He got home about 15 mins before me at 8.30pm.

A thrill at breakfast

Yesterday evening we decided we would have breakfast at home this morning.  While I started in making breakfast Ciaran went to get coffee and the newspaper.

As we ate breakfast and read, Ciaran turned a page in the supplement to reveal a picture of our house. What a thrill!

The Irish Architecture awards are on this Thursday so the Sunday Times were doing a feature on some of the short listed projects.

What a great start to the day to see a picture of where you were sitting in one of the major national newspapers.  Quite surreal!

Busy weekend

We've had a full weekend catching up on lots of chores that we needed to do after our holiday.

Yesterday we cleaned the house from top to bottom and then filled the hot tub.

Today Ciaran had to bleed the hot tub as there was an air lock in it.  Once he did this is started heating up nicely.  Nearly hot enough for a dip as I write.

Today I took my car for the NCT retest. Handed over €28 to get a 1 minute cursory glance at the lights and then get my cert printed off.  My car is officially back roadworthy. Phew! ;-)

After the test we went to TK Maxx for a quick browse before we went to Maplins.  I had picked up some cute cocktail napkins but when I went to pay I saw the queue was waaay too long so I left them back.

We then went to Maplin for an aerial to hook up the new TV in our bedroom.  When we got home Ciaran climbed into the attic to see if he could set up the aerial there.  We got no reception so I connected it to the back of the TV - still no reception.  I called the TV helpline number in the UK.  They gave me a few tips and helped me troubleshoot.  At one point I had Ciaran on a stepladder hanging out the window with the aerial.  We got it sorted and we are now hooked up to the digital service offered by the Irish government - all 9 channels (without having to position Ciaran with his arm out the window!).  Downstairs we are connected to UPC and we have about 100 channels, including the newly added TLC which we discovered when we returned from our holidays.

In the afternoon we popped in to Cinnamon for a carafe of Malbec - me likey! Later I heated up lasagne for dinner which was enjoyed by both of us.

Now we are relaxing watching the box set of The House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey which is excellent!

In good news, as we left Cinnamon we saw a sign in Coffee Society.  Looks like they are reopening. Wonderful!

Pig & Heifer

Pig & Heifer New York Delicatessan - a taste of America

We split a "Hot Colin" sandwich for lunch.  It was so good!!! We both said it tasted like America!

It was my first time here and I loved it!!